Japan PM to push for progress at NPT meet to scrap nuclear weapons

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to media at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan November 24, 2021. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed on Thursday to do his utmost to push for meaningful progress at a January meeting to review the Non-Proliferation Treaty and encourage action to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The comment by Kishida, who hails from the nuclear memorial city of Hiroshima, comes after the previous such meeting, in New York in 2015, failed to adopt a final document following disagreement over a plan for a nuclear-free Middle East.

The review meeting before that, in 2010, had adopted a final document laying out an action plan for nuclear arms reductions.

“I’ll make an all-out effort to have a final document adopted at the next NPT review conference, which will be substantial progress toward a world without nuclear weapons,” Kishida told a meeting of security experts.

Kishida said he would send his special adviser on nuclear disarmament, Minoru Terada, a Harvard-educated lawmaker from his ruling party, to visit the relevant nations in an effort to build consensus ahead of the January meet.